245 terrorists killed in Kashmir in 2009

Security forces killed 245 terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir last year, when the number of infiltration attempts by militants from Pakistan went up marginally, according to official figures.

"Attempts at infiltration from across the LoC (saw) a marginal increase during 2009," Minister of State for Home Affairs Ajay Maken said, referring to the Line of Control dividing Indian and Pakistani Kashmir.

He said 342 incursion attempts were recorded in 2008 and 485 in 2009, the minister told the Rajya Sabha in a written reply. Maken said that terrorist activities showed a "declining trend - from 708 in 2008 to 499 in 2009" in Jammu and Kashmir.

"As per the statistics provided by the ministry of defence, the terrorists killed in Jammu and Kashmir are 245 in 2009, and 27 up to Feb 21, 2010," he said.

The minister said the government had adopted a multi-pronged approach to contain cross-border infiltration in the state.

This "includes strengthening of border management and multi-tiered and multi-modal deployment along international border and the LoC and infiltration routes".

He said the government was also upgrading border fencing, acquiring latest weapons and equipment, and synergising intelligence flow to check infiltration from Pakistan.